Spicy City — Restaurant in San Gabriel

Spicy city is located on the 2nd floor of the plaza with 99 ranch in San Gabriel. Parking is a nightmare on the weekend so we ended up having to park far away in the huge parking lot and walking.

We were seated right away but our server wasn't very nice or attentive. We ordered the cold dishes, which were okay but the bean thread noodle that this type of Chinese food is known for was quite good. After eating that first, I had high hopes for the rest of the the dishes we ordered but I was sorely disappointed.

We had the hot pot dish with meat and vegetables. The sad part is there was way too much potatoes and too little of everything else. The dish wasn't cheap so I felt a little jibbed. The worst dish was the Tasty Frog. It was huge and had tons of huge frog legs but the meat was overcook and tough. The sauce was also too oily and not tasty. I ended up not eating a whole lot of it.

Although the bean thread noodle is better than Chendu taste, their entrees didn't impress me. It's also a little too pricey so I probably won't be coming back...

Second visit. Still not a fan despite trying to get the favorite dishes everyone loves.

It reminds me of the restaurants I hit has a poor kid in high school with my friends because it was cheap and you could feed a lot of people with it. Cheap and good enough but not good enough to want to repeat visit once I became an adult. It's how I feel about McDonald's. You like it as a kid but it's sits at the bottom of being edible enough to enjoy for its cheap price. Same goes for this place.

If everyone's favorite dish is the fried chicken with peppers I didn't like it. Most of the chicken pieces were small pieces of chicken skin deep fried. The amount of numbing spice was overwhelming that there pretty much wasn't any other flavor other than making your mouth completely useless. Flavorless is the best way to put it.

The green beans had the same problem. Flavorless. Despite all the things it was fried with there was not flavor to it.

If you're serious about flavor hit up Huolala. If you want to save a few bucks to get subpar food this...

Spicy City is on the 2nd level in the sprawling mall anchored by the San Gabriel branch of 99 Ranch Market. Parking can be extremely difficult on weekends.

I went with a group of regulars. Items ordered included: Fried Chicken cubes with hot pepper; Spicy Shrimp; cabbage; Cumin lamb; mung bean noodles; shredded pork (aka "pork belly with preserved vegetable); Chungking style cold noodles; and sweet rice ball soup for dessert.

No banquet room, but there's one large round table in the corner, which can comfortably seat 10 people. There was a group of over 25 people who were divided across three adjacent tables.

Taste is not very Americanized and over 90% of clientele were Asian during my last visit.

Highlights were the Cumin lamb on toothpicks and the Fried Chicken Cubes with Hot Pepper. It's an acquired taste, but I really enjoyed the Special Sweet Rice Ball Soup; the base was a sweetened soup of sweet fermented rice wine with the grains, cooked egg strands and sweet rice balls filled with black...